Individuals having limited fine motor skills, including people suffering from a disability or disorder, accident victims, the elderly, and small children or infants, often lack the manual dexterity to systematically locate and scoop up food out of a dish. Additionally, these individuals may inadvertently put pressure on the top edge of a dish or knock its side, causing it to flip over and spill its contents. Indeed, the challenging task of feeding these individuals often necessitates a caregiver, which can be quite costly.
A variety of feeding dishes have been proposed to facilitate self-feeding by those with restricted motor skills. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,683,974 describes feeding dishes having a turned-over rim or lip to assist a person in loading a utensil with food. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0039966 A1 describes transparent feeding dishes having a spoon-shaped locus and an inward curving rim to assist a person in scooping up food onto a spoon. However, in each of these instances the person must still be able to locate the food with the utensil and scoop the food up. Additionally, the person must also be able to maintain the utensil in a proper plane so as to balance the food on the utensil. Accordingly, there remains a need for feeding dishes that facilitate self-feeding by individuals with limited fine motor skills. These needs and others are met by the present invention.